


Happy Halloween, Connor!

by Nova (Roxanne_Kane)



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Cozy, Gen, Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27286264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roxanne_Kane/pseuds/Nova
Summary: It's Connor's first Halloween and Hank decided last minute that they were going to do a little something.This is a short feel-good fic, just cozy and kinda embracing the warmer sides of Halloween. Enjoy!
Relationships: Hank Anderson & Connor, Hank Anderson & Connor & Sumo
Comments: 2
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

“I don’t fully understand the purpose of this holiday.” Connor held a chain of pumpkin holiday lights in his hands, staring down at them in confusion. His LED flickered yellow as he surveyed the street. 

The late autumn leaves fell from the trees lining the street, giving everything a beautiful golden and orange glow. Some trees had already lost all their adornments and stood dark and foreboding against the cheerful colors. A brisk wind and warm sunshine completed a perfect autumn day. A few children played in the quiet street, throwing the leaves around and pushing each other into big heaps of leaves that had been raked together. An elderly man yelled from his porch for them to stop and they ran away giggling. In front of every house a different assortment of decorations was spread over the lawn and onto the front doorsteps. Some had gotten more creative and placed spooky prank traps in their front yards or full-blown graveyard decoration. Pumpkins of various colors spilled down the steps of the doorways and down the walkways, plastic bats hung from trees. Every house participated in this holiday’s traditions. 

Except for Hank’s. It looked neglected, almost abandoned. The white and brown color peeled away at the edges and hap-hazardly parked car did not help the image. Hank noisily pulled a very dusty box out onto the steps as Sumo laid down in the damp grass, watching his master huff and cough. The faded writing on the box read “Haloween Decrations”. Connor analyzed the writing and determined that it must have been written by a small child, around five or six. 

Hank stood up and held his hand to his lower back. “Jeez, it’s a lot heavier than expected.”

Connor looked at Hank, awaiting an answer to his question. The lieutenant sighed as he caught Connor’s gaze. “No holiday has a purpose, Connor.”

“In fact, this is not entirely correct”, Connor stated. “Many holiday traditions go back to a very practical purpose. Christmas, for example, was first introduced by the Catholic Church, presumably in 336 CE, as an assimilation of the pagan practice of winter solstice into Christianity. It made transition to a new religion easier for the conquered country.

Halloween, furthermore, is derived from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain where people would light bonfires and wear grizzly costumes to frighten ghosts away. They believed the veil between living and dead would be thinnest this time of year.”

Hank grunted. “Connor, stop info dumping on me.”

“What’s an info dump?”

Hank rolled his eyes. “Never mind. But, if you know all that, then why ask about the purpose?”

“Because I don’t understand the necessity of costumes. Ghosts don’t exist”, Connor said blankly. “So why still dress in a costume and ask for candy?”

“How do you know ghosts don’t exist?” Hank asked irritated. 

“Due to lack of evidence”, Connor answered simply.

“Uh-huh.” Hank looked at his friend, the wheels in his head turning. This sounded like the perfect opportunity to play a little prank…

“Also, I have more questions”, Connor began and played with the jack-o-lantern lights between his fingers. “I do not understand why everything must be frightening.”

“What do you mean?”

“Some people have put up traps in order to scare children or even other adults. Why? To my knowledge fear is not a desired emotion.”

“True, but on Halloween people know that the traps or dangers aren’t real”, Hank explained. “It’s a way of having a bit of fun with fear. You get a small shock and then you can laugh about it.”

Connor looked at Hank, confusion still written over his face. 

“Look”, Hank put a hand on Connor’s shoulder and turned him to look at the people in the street. “Halloween is here for everyone to have a bit fun with darker sides of life. They want to dress up and eat candy and get drunk and have a good time. Don’t overthink it.”

“Alright.” Connor examined the street, then Hank’s house, then Hank. “If we are going to participate, we will need a few more items.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna head to the store and buy a buttload of candy and some pumpkins. This is your first Halloween, so we’re gonna hit all the stops.”

“Meaning we will be wearing costumes?”

“Ok, not all the stops”, Hank grunted. He fished out his car keys from his jacket pocket and headed to the car. “You start decorating and watch out for Sumo, I don’t want him running around in the street.”

The dog heard his name and wearily looked up at Hank before putting his head back on his paws and letting out a long sigh. 

“Hank”, Connor called after the lieutenant, “You should buy about a fifth more candy than you were planning to buy.”

“Why?”, Hank asked irritated. “Do you think so many kids will come around? Most of them don’t like me.”

“No, but there is a 74% chance that you will ingest some of the candy you buy before coming back to the house”, Connor said. “If we want to make sure there is enough for all passing children, you will have to adjust your planned purchase.”

Hank’s face turned red as his grumbled something unintelligible. Angrily, he slammed the car door and drove off.


	2. Chapter 2

Almost two hours later Connor stepped back from the house to view his efforts. He had found two identical pumpkin chain lights and wrapped one each around the two pillars in front of Hank’s door. A large plastic skeleton hung from the wall to the left of the entryway and stickers of flying bats were in the windows. Connor had felt like something was missing and compared the decorations of other houses. He then gathered large leaves in red, orange and yellow and assorted them into a wreath, red being the outer color, then orange and yellow in the center. He placed the wreath on the front door. As final touches he hung a “Happy Halloween” sign that was covered in fake blood next to the door.

It was not up to the standard of other houses, but Connor couldn’t help but smile. Sumo had lain peacefully in the grass and watched Connor. He wagged his tail as the android bent down to pet him. 

“What do you think, Sumo?”, Connor asked. “Do you like it?”

The low humming of a car announced Hank’s return as it drove up to the house. The old Lincoln pulled into the driveway and the motor died down. Hank got out with a look of awe on his face. 

“Connor, this looks great!”, Hank exclaimed. 

A warm feeling ran through Connor’s system as he heard Hank’s approval. “Thank you! I tried my best.”

Hank nodded, not taking his eyes of the house. How come a machine could decorate better than him? Last time Hank tried anything he accidentally broke half the stuff he used. 

“Here, help me get the stuff out of the car”, he waved to Connor, “The store was a nightmare.”

“Well, today is Halloween”, Connor stated as he grabbed some grocery bags. “This was all very last minute.”

“I know, but I wasn’t gonna do anything at all at first”, Hank grumbled.

“What made you change your mind?”

Hank looked at Connor packed with multiple large bags of candy bars and sour drops, wearing his innocent expression as always. A smile flitted across his face. “I dunno. Just felt like it.”

He went around the car and opened the trunk. With a loud grunt he heaved out a large metal cauldron that reached almost to his hips. “I saw this and thought it was cool. We can put the candy for the kids in here.”

Under loud grunting and moaning the detective carried the cauldron to the door. With a heavy thud he placed it inside right next to the entrance. “There!”

“Hey neighbor!”, a call came from the street. It was a middle-aged man with waning hair and round belly that was tucked tightly into a black t-shirt with a picture of hockey-masked man on it. The neighbor waved at Hank. “Nice to see you finally came back onto the spoooooky train!” He waved his arms in an odd, wiggly fashion around his head. 

“Yeah, yeah”, Hank waved him off. 

The balding man laughed and waved again before walking away. 

“Who was that?” Connor asked. 

“Just a dumbass who lives down the street”, Hank answered. “He keeps nagging at me where my ‘holiday cheer’ was. Apparently, ‘up his ass’ was the wrong answer.”

Hank clapped his hands together. “Let’s get carving, so the pumpkins are done before it gets dark. Also…”, he reached into one of the grocery bags. “I did get us costumes after all. I thought it might seem a little dicey if two grown, strange men looking like us handed candy to kids.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I know it's past Halloween. Stuff came up, but I hope you'll still enjoy the rest.

A few hours later dusk had fallen over Detroit, cloaking the city in a dark veil. But the warm golden glow from hundreds of jack-o-lanterns lit up the streets in a spooky light, illuminating the faces of smiling children and chatting parents. They browsed the streets, ringing doorbells and gathering candy in their colorful bags. The house across from Hank’s had put up a fake coffin and whenever children came closer, it was triggered and a skeleton wearing ragged clothes shot up with outstretched arms. This caused shrieking every now and again when eager kids walked up to the door for treats. 

Hank’s doorbell rang more often than Connor would have expected. Small groups of children greeted him with their chanting of “trick or treat!”. Hank and Connor handed out the candy from their cauldron, smiling at them. Every now and again a parent would eye Connor suspiciously, but the children didn’t seem to care. As long as they got their sugar. 

“Here you go”, Connor said. “I would recommend not to eat everything you get at once. This could cause disturbances in your digestive system.”

“Sure, mister”, one of the kids said and the others laughed as they headed to the next house. 

Hank laughed and clapped Connor on the back. “There’s no point in telling kids not to eat all their candy. They’re gonna do it anyway.”

“But it’s not good for them”, Connor said. “The recommended intake of sugar…”

“They don’t care”, Hank interrupted him. He closed the door and grabbed a large chocolate and nuts bar. “And neither do I.” 

Hank wandered back to his couch and fell into it. He munched the candy bar as he flipped through his movie options. “Come on, Connor, we still have to watch a few scary movies! It’s Halloween tradition.”

Connor followed Hank into the living room. He looked over at Sumo laying in the corner who was wearing a small headband with red devil’s horns on them. Somehow Sumo’s droopy eyes seemed even droopier when red horns were attached to his head. The dog let out another deep sigh.

“Hank…”, Connor began. “I understand that we’re in costume. But why Sumo?”

The detective looked over at his dog and then to Connor. He had bought the android a witch hat and a starry cape to lay over his shoulders. “Why? Did you wanna be the devil?”

“Sumo’s a dog.”

“So? It looks cute.”

“You are also wearing the same red horns”, Connor commented. “Why aren’t you a witch?”

“Because it suits you better.” Hank grinned. Connor seemed unamused by this answer. “Ok, they didn’t have anything else left and I didn’t want the witch hat. Or cape.”

“Is this payback because my pumpkin carving skills exceeded yours?”, Connor asked with an annoyed look on his face. “It’s not that hard to carve a face into a large vegetable.”

“It’s harder when you don’t have a built-in analysis tool”, Hank retorted. “And no that’s not the reason. It’s just funny watching you walk around in your cape and hat.”

Connor glared at Hank but did not say anything else. Instead he sat down on the sofa and waited Hank to choose a movie. After a long debate between a variety of movies, they landed on what Hank called an “age-old classic”. In this film a family with three children moved into a house far out in the countryside. Apparently, a variety of odd things were happening in the house that could not be explained by any of the family members. 

“Well, I must say, that window closing could have been the wind”, Connor analyzed. “The amount of information is very limited. Could we rewind and scan the scene frame for frame?” 

“Goddammit, Connor, no!”, Hank paused the movie and threw his hands in the air. “Even if the window was opened by the wind how do you explain the pale woman hanging from the tree outside and who vanished in a second?! Or the clocks that all stop at the same time?!”

“This is why we need to rewind and analyze the scenes again”, Connor insisted. 

Hank stared daggers at his friend and opened his mouth in protest just as the doorbell rang again. He rolled his eyes and tossed Connor the remote. “Fine. Ruin the movie. I’m gonna give some kids some candy. But when I come back, we’re gonna watch the movie like normal people!”

Connor nodded and rewound the last few scenes. In the background he could hear Hank grumble “Happy Halloween” to a few cheerful children and rummaged around in the candy cauldron. The android leaned forward and paused the movie, moving slowly from frame to frame. Clocks all around the dark house stopped at exactly the same time. Odd. All family members were sleeping. A low growl rumored through the hallway and moved into the downstairs living room. Also odd. No figure could be seen in any rooms. Connor paused it again. A shadow on one of the dark windows. Hmm.

Only now did the android realize how quiet the house was. The kids had gone, but where was the detective? 

“Hank?”

Silence. Only the low hum of the refrigerator emanated from the kitchen. 

Connor got out of his seat and walked into the hallway. Empty. 

“Hank?”

He walked into the bedroom and stuck his head into the bathroom. Also empty. 

With a loud click the light went out. The apartment was cloaked in darkness, all electronics lost their power. Someone must have shut off the power outside. A break-in?

“Hank?” Connor scanned the rooms and walked back into the living room to see what Sumo was doing. But the dog just laid bored in his bed. The android looked around the room when from the corner of his eye he saw a shadow flit across the window. He snapped his head around, but it was gone. Connor walked to the window and opened it, looking outside. It was already getting late so less and less children were roaming the streets. None of them stopped to look at the house: apparently, they hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary. The android closed the window and turned back to the room. Sumo lifted his head and stared at the entrance door. He growled lowly, fletching his teeth. 

“What’s wrong, Sumo?”, Connor whispered. “Is someone at the door?” 

The dog didn’t react other than to continue staring at the door. The android’s LED changed from white to yellow. Something was wrong. Where was Hank? Was someone trying to enter the house? Connor crouched as he approached the door. Slowly, he wrapped his fingers around the doorknob and listened for a sound. Without warning he ripped open the door to confront whoever was waiting there. But the doorway was empty. He stuck his head outside and looked around the front yard, yet he couldn’t see anyone. Odd.

Connor closed the door quietly. He stood in the dark hallway and listened intently for any noise. A rustle came from the living room. The android peered through the darkness of the house and saw a shadow at standing in the window at the far end of the living room. It stood there, not moving a muscle. Connor could not detect any heat signatures coming off of it. 

“Hello? Who’s there?”, he asked loudly. His LED had turned red and he did not take his eyes off the person in the window. Sumo barked and jumped to his feet but didn’t dare move any closer to the window. Connor took a step toward the living room. As he crossed the threshold from hallway to living room a large dark figure darted at him from behind the wall. 

“BOO!”, the figure bellowed in a deep voice as it threw itself at the android. Connor let out a surprised yelp as he held up his hands in defense. Quicker than a cat, the android threw a punch at the center of the large body. It let out a groan and heavily fell to its knees. 

“Wait, I know that voice…”, Connor said. He touched his jacket on right shoulder and activated a built-in flashlight in order to shed light on his assailant. In front of him, on his hands and knees, laid Hank, holding a hand to his abdomen. 

“What the hell, Connor?”, he wheezed. “Why’d you punch me?”

“You hid your identity and attacked me, detective”, Connor answered plainly, “How did you think I was going to react?

He turned to the window to see who was standing there and now saw in the light of the flashlight that it was a large cardboard cut-out of menacing movie-character. It was the same hockey-masked man that he had seen on Hank’s neighbor’s t-shirt earlier.

“Hank, what was the purpose of this exercise?”, Connor asked. He held out his hand to help up his friend. Hank grabbed it and heaved himself to his feet. 

“I just wanted to show you that there’s more to life than just rational explanation. More than what you can see and understand”, Hank sighed. He dusted off his pants and headed back to the couch. “You were so hell-bent on proving that everything is explainable and that ghosts aren’t real that I wanted to spook you a bit. Besides, that’s something else you do to Halloween: you scare your friends.”

Connor looked at his friend in the light beam. He had slumped into the couch and somehow seemed disappointed. Sumo got out of his dog bed and waddled over to Hank, inelegantly jumping onto the couch and laying his head on Hank’s lap. “Good dog.” Hank pet his furry friend and grabbed his beer. 

After reconnecting the electricity, Connor returned to the living room and sat down on the other end of the couch, barely squeezing in next to Sumo. He looked over at Hank who started the TV again and picked out the movie they had been watching. He still seemed somewhat glum.

“Hank”, Connor began. “I understand that you believe in ghosts.”

“It doesn’t matter”, Hank interrupted him. 

“No, please”, Connor held up his hand. “I have to admit that there is a possibility ghosts are real.”

Hank’s expression brightened as he pulled up his eyebrows and looked over at the android. “How do you figure?”

“Well… There are many things in the world that still cannot be explained despite the far-reaching technology humans have developed. Information changes over time. When androids were built, humans never thought they would deviate and become self-conscious, become their own people. But here we are. What I’m trying to say is that nothing is impossible. So, in conclusion, as small as it may be, the possibility of ghosts exists.”

Hank smiled at Connor. The android smiled back. 

“So, you still wanna analyze the movie?”, Hank asked, holding up the remote. 

“No, I think I’ll enjoy it more, if I just observe regularly”, Connor said firmly. He leaned back into the couch and reached to pet Sumo as Hank pressed play. This really was a holiday the android could get used to.


End file.
